Compounding Is a process of

producing new words by combining

grammatically and semantically 2 or more
than 2 stems or roots. The first element of
the compound is treated as a stem, not as a
word, that is why inflections on the first
constituent are rare. The only inflections
that survived are those showing case and
number. The meaning of many compounds
is based on the sum of the meanings of the
component words.
(Fox-hunter the meaning is given by the
second word and the 1 element gives the
specialization).
Properties:
Compounds are similar to syntactic
phrases; they share a common property,
recursiveness which means that compounds
and NP can be parts of longer and longer
compounds or phrases. (Ice-cream, icecream maker, ice-cream maker society).
Sometimes compounds made up of 3 or
more elements can be interpreted in 2 ways
by deriving the basic meaning from the last
constituent of from the last 2 constituents.
(A silver anniversary ring a ring for the
silver anniversary/ an anniversary ring
made of silver).since compounds and NP
have common characteristics, linguists
decided upon a number of criteria to
distinguish them:
a)

b)

c)

d)

Spelling: the compounds can be

written in 3 ways (single words,
spaced compounds or
hyphenated compounds). The
constituents of a syntactic
phrase are always written as
separate words.
The phonological criterion: a
compound of 2 elements is
stressed on the 1 constituent,
while an Np is stressed on the
last constituent. (Compound
a blackboard. NPa black
board).
The morphological criterion:
compounds have morphological
integrity, that is the constituents
of a compound cannot be
separated by inserting other
words, neither the intensifiers
can be attached to the
compound (a truck driver). In
contrast NP allows the insertion
of other words and they can be
modified by the intensifiers.
( comp: ex-apprentice welder,
NP- a nice person/ an ex-very
nice person). Compounds can
take prefixes or suffixes, while
NP cannot.
Word order: the order of the
constituents and a compound is
fixed, while word order in the
NP is free. (compounds

e)

blackboard, NP a black
board, a blue chair).
The semantic criterion:
compounds have an idiomatic
meaning. Sometimes 2 or more
compounds having an identical
structure and using words
belonging to the same semantic
field do not have the meaning
expected.( ex: sunstruck
affected by the sun vs.
moonstruck marked by
mental unbalance.) Such
compounds have a meaning
derived from a metaphorical
interpretation: the meaning of
some compounds can be easily
described by phrases using the
component terms of the
compound: seashore the shore
of the sea. Syntactic phrases
may function as paraphrases of
compounds.

Classification
The largest class of compounds in English is
that of compound nouns which form 90%
of compounds in English. The most
frequent patterns of combinations are N+N.
Adjective + noun grandmother
Verbal noun + noun heating system
Noun + verbal noun book binding
Pronoun _ noun she cousin
Verb + adverb out-look
Past participle + noun broken heart
Adverb + verbal noun well being
Less frequent are: verb + verb make
believe
Adverb + adverb outback
Letter + noun T-shirt
Compound verbs: verb + verb dry
dean,
Verb + noun babysit
Verb + prep overdo
Verb + adverb broadcast
Compound adjectives: noun + adj
duty-free
Adj + present part easy-going
Adj + past part highborn

Noun+ past part storm-beaten

Adj + adj bittersweet
Compound pronouns: P+ P each other
Det + noun somebody
Negative adv + prep hereby
Prep + noun today